Odias residing outside State too can avail BSKY benefits

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to make Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) more successful than Centre’s Ayushman Bharat, Odisha government decided to extend the healthcare scheme for Odias outside the State.

The government today announced a series of benefits for the people under the State’s own healthcare scheme that has covered over 1 crore beneficiaries since August 15.

“Odisha people residing outside the State will also get benefits under the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana. The government has decided that all the State and Central government hospitals outside the State are deemed to be empanelled under the scheme and the treatment cost will be paid to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries,” informed Health & Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena.

As the scheme achieved great success since its implementation benefitting over 1.1 crore patients with cashless care since August 15, the government has decided to include more families under the healthcare scheme, he said.

As per the move, now people with annual income of Rs 3 lakh will also get benefits under the scheme for treatment of cancer, heart and kidney ailments.

Further, all premier healthcare institutions across the country, including Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, CMC Vellore and Narayan Hrudalaya have also been covered under BSKY.

The patients will also be provided transport charges to the hospital outside Odisha.

“To further facilitate patients in case of referral to a hospital outside the State, a conveyance charge of Rs 2,000 per patient will be transferred to the beneficiary’s bank account,” said the Minister.

The government has also decided to include 4,036 medical packages under the scheme against only 1,343 packages covered under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). The package rates have also been revised upward to attract more hospitals to be covered under the scheme.